Herring, Obenshain in dead heat in Virginia attorney general’s race; recount expected

[w4rma]

Source: Washington Post

The Virginia attorney general’s race was a virtual dead heat and headed for a recount early Wednesday morning, with Democratic State Sen. Mark Herring clinging to a 541-vote lead over Republican State Sen. Mark D. Obenshain with 2.2 million ballots cast, according to unofficial results posted by the state board of elections.

With 99.92 percent of the vote tallied, the margin between the two candidates was a scant .03 percent. State election law provides for the trailing candidate to request a recount if the margin is less than 1 percent of the total vote.
...
The chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, Pat Mullins, announced that Obenshain would make no comment because the party was preparing for a recount.
...

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/obenshain-appears-headed-for-razor-thin-victory-in-virginia-attorney-generals-race/2013/11/05/08d13182-4255-11e3-a624-41d661b0bb78_story.html

[JaneyVee]

1. I bet the recount adds more to Herring's total.

Based on the ballots cast for the other candidates.

[Coyotl]

8. Based on who votes absentee, provisional, and paper-preferred, I agree.

I'm willing to predict a herring win at this point, but we have to be aware of the politics-is-war tactics on the right.

[Roland99]

2. Sorry...I keep picturing this in my head....

[Heather MC]

3. Ha ha ha ha ha

I wouldn't call Obenshain, the mightest tree, but definately Rooting for the Herring to Cut him Down
Good one
what movie is this from?

[Lucky Luciano]

4. The most classic of nerdy teenage boy comedy movies...

"Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
I lived this movie as a kid and still know nearly every line!

[Renew Deal]

5. Let the recounts commence!

[Coyotl]

6. Purging voters really does matter! Cuccinelli purged of 38,000 voters from rolls.

Voter purging by Republicans can make a big difference, just ask Al Gore!

Virginia’s Democratic Party loses challenge against purge of 38,000 voters from rolls
By Matt Zapotosky, Published: October 18 - http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/federal-judge-rejects-democratic-challenge-to-virginia-voter-roll-purge/2013/10/18/26235068-3809-11e3-8a0e-4e2cf80831fc_story.html

A federal judge on Friday rejected an effort by the Virginia Democratic Party to restore more than 38,000 names to the state’s voter rolls that it claimed were possibly purged in error, saying the evidence did not convince him that anyone had been disenfranchised.

“I just don’t find that there’s a strong showing here of any inequitable treatment or the deprivation of anyone’s rights,” U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton said as he denied the Democrats’ request. ........

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

7. And this is why Herring MUST win!!!

[elleng]

12. Damn right!

[elleng]

11. Damn right!

[brooklynite]

9. Last votes counted: Herring down by 219

[Coyotl]

10. AP reports 186 vote margin with all precincts reporting.

[dmosh42]

13. maybe the recount will turn up a clue as to how the tea party manipulated the vote count!

[elleng]

15. Heck, they excluded ??? thousands of registered voters!

[RBInMaine]

14. Are there any outstanding ballots, such as provisionals and absentee?

[Cognitive_Resonance]

16. Urgent: Anyone who voted a provisional ballot needs to contact 1-855-910-VOTE (8683)

According to the Herring campaign, thousands of provisional ballots were cast. Herring can win this if the votes are counted.

[JudyM]

17. The latest: Herring pulls ahead... by 32 votes.

Oy.

Candidate Votes Percent

REP Party Mark D. Obenshain 1,100,798 49.89%

DEM Party Mark R. Herring 1,100,830 49.89%

Write-in 4,973 0.23%

Total Votes 2,206,601

[davidpdx]

18. Damn this is going to be like the Franken race a few years back

[JudyM]

22. that was historic, for sure... felt like waiting for the next episode of "24" to air.

[davidpdx]

24. The entire thing was like a six novel drama

Hopefully this won't drag out very long.

[itsrobert]

19. An expert Election statistician posted last night Herring was going to lose

ha

[Ranchemp.]

20. Yep.

But bear in mind, nobody's won or lost anything yet, there probably won't be a certified winner for a week or so because of the recount.
I'll declare victory if and when Herring is certified the winner.

[JudyM]

21. Weird -- a mess of votes just got taken away from Herring, and from the "total votes" tally...

... and Herring is behind again...

Candidate Votes Percent

REP Party Mark D. Obenshain 1,100,800 49.90%

DEM Party Mark R. Herring 1,100,119 49.87%

Write-in 4,973 0.23%

Total Votes 2,205,892

[davidpdx]

25. Yeah I just saw that

Obenshain gained 2
Herring lost 719

[Rosa Luxemburg]

23. Who are the idiots who are voting for the idiot Obenshein?

He is a complete idiot

[StevieM]

26. Howard Dean just said on MSNBC that there were 13,000 provisional ballots cast.

That could turn the race.

[RBInMaine]

27. Probably mostly blue votes. They need to get back and make sure their votes are counted.

[theHandpuppet]

28. Some folks only vote for the top of the ticket

Drives me crazy. I'd like to know the difference between the total votes cast in the Governor's race and those cast for AG. Obershain is a nutter who could do great harm in the position of AG, especially to women, minorities and GLBTs.

[Tx4obama]

29. The link below has the current unofficial totals

Here: http://electionresults.virginia.gov/resultsSW.aspx?type=SWR&map=CTY

[AverageJoe90]

30. Herring behind by 800 now.....damn. nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. Example of the changes in the last 24 hours

I took a copy of the downloadable spreadsheet about 24 hours ago, and have compared it with now.

Precinct D-5 in Montgomery County changed from 77 votes for Obenshain, and 399 for Herring, to 677 for Obenshain, and 399 for Herring (and the latter is frankly more believable - Herring didn't get anything like 84% of the vote in any other precinct in the county).

Current results for that county: http://electionresults.virginia.gov/resultsPREC.aspx?type=SWR&rid=169&cty=121&osn=6

So I guess this shows there's still a lot of typos in the first unofficial results.